Issue 28 - Bridge and Bach

For Lent II, the prelude will be Frank Bridge's "Adagio in E Major" for organ. This is one of those pieces that I've wanted to play for a long time and am glad it's now officially in my repertoire. Frank Bridge (1879-1941) was an English musician and composer, chiefly employed as a violin and viola player in many of London's symphonies and string quartets. However, he did write a handful of music for the organ - most of which I've never heard. This Adagio is well loved and often played by organists, so one might surmise that it's one of his better compositions for organ. While its melody leans toward schmaltzy (I hate to admit), it still has a very poignant and "typical" English, Romantic organ style to it. Opening on the softest of stops, Bridge plays with the melody in every voice with different accompanying figures, all the while dictating a crescendo until the melody's culmination. The denouement that follows brings the organ back to its quieter resources and Bridge ends the piece as it opened: with a simple statement of the melody.

The Prelude and Fugue in A Minor, BWV 543 is among the many of Bach's famous organ works. The fugue is really quite long (but wonderful), so I'll only play the prelude to close the service. The prelude shows a solid relationship to the North-German heritage of praeludia: the opening right hand solo which eventually gives way to a toccata, the dominant pedal tone underneath the fantastic figuration in the hands and, finally, the use of stile brisé (outlining chords by breaking them up in a falling, improvisatory fashion). It's easy to imagine the young Bach improvising a postlude like this on any given Sunday at one of his posts. The opening, impromptu figurations eventually give way to a more structured repartee between the manual (keyboard) and pedal based upon the opening toccata figure. The conversation gradually escalates until its summit is reached.

(Image: Frank Bridge)